The present invention relates to a condenser module, in particular for a household refrigeration appliance.
In the case of a customary household refrigeration appliance, a compressor for the refrigerant circulating in the refrigeration appliance is accommodated in a recess built into a lower rear area of its housing. A condenser is mounted on a rear wall of the housing. If the refrigeration appliance is set up in a dwelling, this rear wall, together with a building or furniture unit wall, delimits a flue in which air warmed by the condenser rapidly rises, as a result of which cool fresh air flows back into the compressor recess. On the one hand this fresh air cools the compressor, and on the other it contributes to the evaporation of condensate directed from the interior of the refrigeration appliance and collected in a tray mounted on the compressor.
Modern, compact compressors have a high power density, and as a result of improved heat insulation of appliances, their running times are shorter compared with appliances of earlier construction. Although the efficiency of the appliances is improved as a result of these measures, the problem arises that the efficiency of the cooling and of the condensate evaporation suffers, as the heating of the condenser and the airflow through the evaporator chamber thereby come into effect in each case with a delay, after actuation of the compressor. Thus at the beginning of each operating period of the compressor, a phase occurs during which the compressor is inefficiently cooled and the condensate heated by it does not evaporate due to lack of airflow, or cannot be efficiently drawn off from the compressor recess.
In order to save on the space required by a rear wall condenser and to achieve efficient cooling of the compressor and removal of water vapor from the compressor recess, it has been proposed that the condenser be accommodated in compact configuration in the recess and the compressor and condenser cooled with the aid of a ventilator. Even with such a construction, however, it has proved difficult to achieve an adequate evaporation rate for the condensate, especially when this arises in large quantities as a result of the frequent opening of the door, or the storage of moist items for refrigeration. In order to cater for such peaks in the formation of condensate, large evaporation trays are customarily required, accommodation of which in the compressor recess is to the detriment of the usable volume of the refrigeration appliance.